Daily Thought: God Wants Your Affection

Do you know what God desires most from you?  It's the one thing no other person on earth can give Him—your affection.  Although a thousand other people can do the work, give the bucks, fill the gap...no one else can give God the unique affection that only you and He can share.

Louie Giglio, The Air I Breathe, Multnomah Publishers (2003), pp. 31-32

Daily Thought: Something Terrific is Alive

That's the simple idea.  When the gospel enables us to believe that something terrific is alive in another and that something terrifically alive in us could actually touch it, good things happen.  We accept people for who they are, we grieve over every failure to live out their true identity, and no matter what happens, we continue to believe in what they could become without demanding that it happen on our timetable or for our sakes, or that we play a big part in making it happen.

Larry Crabb, Connecting, Word (1997), p. 53

Daily Thought: Blessings in Disguise

Is it not a significant fact, proving that nothing happens by chance? Had Simon entered the city one hour sooner, or one hour later, his after history might have been entirely different. On the smallest circumstances the greatest results may hinge. A chance meeting may determine the weal or woe of a life. Doubtless to Simon this encounter seemed at the moment the most unfortunate incident that could have befallen him—an interruption, an annoyance and a humiliation; yet it turned out to be the gateway of life. Thus do blessings sometimes come in disguise, and out of an apparition, at the sight of which we cry out for fear, may suddenly issue the form of the Son of Man.

Stalker, James (2011-03-30). The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ: A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion (p. 63).  Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: The Ground and Source of Goodness

By contrast God is a natural stopping point as a foundation for objective moral values and duties. For unless we are moral nihilists, we have to recognize some stopping point, and God as the ultimate reality is the natural place to stop. Moreover, God is by definition worthy of worship, so that He must be the embodiment of perfect moral goodness. Again, God, by definition is the greatest conceivable being, and a being that is the ground and source of goodness is greater than one that merely shares in goodness.

William Lane Craig, On Guard, David C. Cook (2010), p. 139

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Daily Thought: Past Sin and Present Good

There is nothing which so frustrates good resolutions and paralyzes noble efforts as the dead weight of past sins...What is it that mocks the generous thought rising in our minds, that silences the noble word on our lips, that paralyzes the forming energy of our actions? Is it not the internal whisper, Remember how you have failed before? This is the curse of past sin: it will not let us do the good we would.

Stalker, James (2011-03-30). The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ: A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion (p. 49).  . Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: The Lasting Effect of Love

Now a man may be a very good doctor and yet have no love for his patients. He may be a very clever and successful lawyer and yet have no love for his clients. A merchant may prosper greatly in business without caring at all about his customers. A man may be able to explain the wonderful mysteries of science or theology without any love. But no man can be a true worker for God, and a successful winner of souls without love. He may be a great preacher in the eyes of the world and have crowds flocking to hear him, but if love to God and to souls is not the motive power, the effects will all pass away like the morning cloud and the early dew.

D. L. Moody, To The Work, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

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Daily Thought: Put Heart Into Prayer

Other things being equal, your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer. Please note exactly what I say: "Your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer." I put it in that way because there are many who put a great deal of time but so little heart into their praying that they do very little praying in the long time they spend at it.

R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

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Daily Thought: Bring Sin into the Light

However deeply rooted the sin may appear, rooted in constitution and habit, we must cleanse ourselves of it if we would be holy. 'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' As we bring out every sin from the inner part of the house into the light of God and walk in the light, the precious blood that justifies will work mightily to cleanse too: the blood brings into living contact with the life and the love of God. Let us come into the light with the sin: the blood will prove its mighty power. Let us cleanse ourselves in yielding ourselves to the light to reveal and condemn, to the blood to cleanse and sanctify.

Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

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Daily Thought: Having the Light of LIfe

The word of Christ is the Light of Christ; and therefore the Christian Scriptures are the light of the world and he that followeth them shall have the light of life.

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Restoration Reprints (2001), p. 35

Daily Thought: Dare Enough to Trust God

At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ's statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God.  Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it.  We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in character of God.

Oswald Chambers; My Utmost for His Highest; Dodd, Mead & Company (1935), p. 151

Daily Thought: Look at Jesus in the Scriptures

They who would live a perfect life must set the life of Christ before them as portrayed by the Holy Scriptures. You can not see much of this perfect life by a passing glance. It is he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to look that will see the perfect life which it pictures. The artist must look long at the landscape and get it imaged upon his soul before he can produce it upon the canvas. The Bible description of the life of Christ must fill your soul with admiration and with a strong desire to possess it. Your heart must lay hold upon it until that life is focused and printed upon your own soul. It is like the art of photographing. The object must be set before the heart.

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (pp. 6-7). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: The Fulfillment of Scripture

But if Jesus is raised from the dead, then the scriptures have reached their goal in him, and it's no time for the moment the psalmists and prophets longed to see, when the nations of the earth will bring their treasures in loyalty and obedience to God's anointed king, Israel's Messiah.

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, HarperOne (2008), p. 237

Daily Thought: Marriage Was God's Idea

Marriage was his idea, after all. God created marriage, and put the desire in our hearts. However else it is you think you came together, what other forces you think were at work, the hopeful truth is that marriage is something God cares deeply about—including your marriage.  When through the prophet Malachi the Lord God of Israel says, “I hate divorce,” we hear it with a shudder. But it ought to be with a surge of hope—the passion conveyed in those three words reveals how deeply he loves marriage, how strong his vested interests are in its success.

Eldredge, John; Eldredge, Stasi (2009-12-09). Love and War: Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of (pp. 17-18). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: The Side of Victory

No, the believer who knows what Christ is as the Risen One, approaches death, the crucifixion of self and the flesh and the world, from the resurrection side, the place of victory, in the power of the Living Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death and resurrection as ours; and Christ Himself, the Risen Living Lord, leads us triumphantly into the experience of the power of His death.

Murray, Andrew (2009-10-04). Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy (p. 119). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: Focus on Your Strengths

In other words, be aware of your strengths.  When you teach, do people listen?  When you lead, do people follow?  When you administer, do things improve? Where are you the most productive?  Identify your strengths, and then—this is important—major in them.  Take a few irons out of the fire so this one can get hot.  Failing to focus on your strengths may prevent us from accomplishing the unique tasks God has called us to do.

Max Lucado, Just Like Jesus, Word Publishing (1998), pp. 96-97

Daily Thought: The Message of Worry and Stress

Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it’s okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we’ve been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won’t be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God’s strength, our problems are small, indeed.

Chan, Francis (2010-01-01). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (p. 40). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: Strive to Learn from God

He [Paul] insists that this special teaching is not the product of the intellectual activity of men; it is the gift of God and it came into the world with Jesus Christ.  All our discoveries are not so much what our minds have found out as what God has told us.  This by no means frees us from the responsibility of human effort.  Only the student who works can make himself fit to receive the real riches of the mind of a great teacher.  It is so with us and God.  The more we strive to understand, the more God will tells us; and there is no limit to this process, because the riches of God are unsearchable.

William Barclay, DSB: The Letters to the Corinthians, The Westminster Press (1975), p. 27

Daily Thought: Humility Requires Self-Awareness

Humility's closest attribute is honesty. Humility doesn't require us to be self-deprecating. Humility is not about having a low self-image or poor self-esteem. Humility is about self-awareness. It is important to be self-aware in relationship to our gifts, talents, skills, and intellect, but in regard to our spiritual health, it is far more essential that we are self-aware in the arena of personal character. If you see yourself for who you are and embrace it honestly, humility is the natural result.

Erwin McManus, Uprising, Thomas Nelson (2003), p. 47

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Daily Thought: God is Bigger

Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating, but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep–dependent lives.

Chan, Francis (2010-01-01). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (pp. 29-30). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: Suffering Educates

Suffering educates sympathy; it softens the spirit, lightens the touch, hushes the tread; it accustoms the spirit to read from afar the symptoms of an unspoken grief; it teaches the soul to tell the number of the promises, which, like the constellations of the arctic circle, shine most brilliantly through the wintry night; it gives to the spirit a depth, a delicacy, a wealth of which it cannot otherwise possess itself. Through suffering he has become perfected.

F. B. Meyer, The Way Into the Holiest, Olive Tree Bible Software